Problem: In deciding how to improve water quality in a watershed, managers
may ask: what are the most effective BMPs for improving water quality in a
given region? How would current water quality conditions change with an adjustment
in landuse? How much change would implementation of a BMP create in pollutant
runoff such as total nitrogen, total phosphorus, suspended solids, lead or
zinc? This proposal addresses the creation of a tool for use on the Internet
by both planners and community members to answers these questions. This tool
will enable watershed management agencies to visualize the use of BMPs in
landscape management and will help community members gain a better understanding
of their watershed.

Objectives: The research objective is to provide easy and widespread access
to a landscape planning model and information that will facilitate stakeholder
involvement and consensus building in watershed management. This project would
improve a previously created watershed simulation model. Data will be available
from on-going work in the Cattaraugus and Irondequoit watersheds in NY. The
resulting design can potentially be applied, through additional efforts and
data collection, to other watersheds in the State. The proposed interactive,
Internet-based tool allows users to apply landscape changes and view model
results from the basin level down to an individual stream segment.

Methods: This project involves literature review, data collection, water
quality model enhancement and testing, and web site development. Recent work
has compiled digital data layers for land use, soils, rainfall, elevation,
stream segments and drainage basins for the New York tributaries to the Great
Lakes. These data layers will be the basis for the surface water nonpoint
source, GIS-based, pollution screening model developed by Adamus and Bergman
(1995). This model calculates the volume of runoff using runoff coefficients
for landuse and soil categories and predicts sediment and pollutant loading
using known concentrations given each landuse type. We will use a slightly
improved model to predict loading of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, lead,
zinc and suspended solids to each stream segment. Predictions of the model
will be tested using STORET water chemistry data available in both watersheds.

The project will provide online means for users to interactively create water
quality simulations over the Internet. Users will define an area for modeling
by choosing one of the two watersheds (see Figure 2). They will then have
the opportunity to zoom in/zoom out or create a box around their region of
interest. Larger selected regions will be modeled with coarser data to enable
the model to run at acceptable speeds. The user will then choose a scenario
to model:

Produce predictions of pollutants given the current state;

Apply a BMP to the selected area and model the future state;

Compare the results of one BMP with another BMP to determine effectiveness
of different BMPs on different regions;

BMPs to be modeled include such pollution prevention measures as streamside
buffers, changes in land use, creation of wetlands, and improved soil management
practices.

The results of each model simulation will be displayed to the user on the
screen in an easy to interpret format, using GIS maps and graphs.